The Truth Behind Alex Rider
by laurynride
Summary: Meet the NEW Momo! Her name is Mai (she changed it), she lives in England and is friends with Alex Rider who is secretly a spy, though she doesn't know that at first... Follow her adventure as she... jumps over motorcycles, gets shot, kicks villians in the... guts, gets kidnapped and turned into.. OBVIOUSLY I'm not going to tell you that part. It'll ruin the surprise..muhaha!
1. Moving on

Clip-clip-clip.

She watched her hair fall and collect into bundles on the floor. The hairdresser had a pretty messy job but that was none of her concern. She was just here for a change of hairstyle. She was sick of being the pushover doormat that everyone took advantage of.

She was going to revert back to the old Momo. The one nobody, even Toshiro, knew about. Her real name wasn`t even Momo. It was actually Maihime. Leave it to her mother to come up with the worst most embarrassing name ever. What kind of ignorant parent named their child, dance or ocean princess?

And why the hell did her father, who was a high ranking shinigami in the soul society, go to the world of the living, fall in love with a human then, marry her? And not any normal, sane woman. Out of the three billion women in the world of the living he picked the most obnoxious abusive one.

He didn`t stop at that. He even went and betrayed her by getting killed by a lowly hollow on her freaking third birthday(nice birthday present by the way), leaving her with her "mother" to take care of her. From that day onwards she forgot the meaning of love.

Her monster of a mother beat her for every single mistake she made. She called it discipline but that`s what it was thought of back in those times. This was her life until she turned thirteen and her mother was getting her ready to get married. At freaking thirteen years of age! That was the norm back then but she had had enough.

She packed her stuff at night and crawled out the window to "freedom". That was she expected but instead she escaped into a world of harsh reality. A world of starvation, disease, fighting and stealing. That was England back then. A world where friendship didn`t exist. Or so she had thought.

Before she met him. What was his name again…? Oh yeah Tom. He was the only friend she-

"Here you go sweetie" boomed a voice dragging her back to reality "done and finished. Just like you wanted it." She surveyed her look in the mirror. This hairdresser was pretty good. The new look was just like she had wanted it. She liked the way it framed her face and the pointy edges of her hair made her look tougher, maybe even beautiful.

"How much will that be" she asked searching around in her pocket for loose change. "twenty pounds" replied the energetic hairdresser before adding " don't worry. With that hairstyle you`ll be picking up boys in no time!"

She handed her the money before muttering a "thank you" and leaving the store. Even with the new look it was going to take a while for her to leave the doormat Momo behind. But that`s what this break was for. Following her fatal injury in the regai war, the soutaichou had recommended a two-month holiday in the world of the living.

She was going to use this holiday to loosen up a little- okay maybe a lot-and to figure out a way to break out of her shell as the improved version of Maihime. First she was going to have to pick a new name. Maybe something English…..

It was Monday morning and Mai was on her way to school. That was the name she had settled for, Mai. English people named their children that too so it wouldn`t stand out too much. It took her a while to think of a surname but in the end she stuck with Ash. Kisuke handled all the paperwork and enrolling her in school as a favour so she was really grateful.

Although it was meant to be a holiday she thought going to school might give her something to do and it was also a brilliant chance to learn more about life in England now. She hadn`t visited England for more than a century, she couldn`t wait to see all the change.

She reached the school and spotted the mob of students entering through the main entrance. She took a deep breath and joined them in. She noticed immediately that her skirt was shorter than the other girl`s skirts. She didn`t know that the skirts here were meant to be longer than the skirts they wore in Japan.

As if she wasn`t already feeling out of place she also realized that she was the only one who wasn`t talking with someone. She turned left and continued looking for the principal`s office ignoring the looks thrown her way. Fifteen minutes later and she still hadn`t found the principal`s office. Seriously this was turning out to be more effort than it was worth.

Finally she decided to ask someone who was passing through the corridor and they lead her back to the entrance but this time they turned right into a dead end and there on the right hand side was a sign saying principal`s office. She thanked the student who helped her before entering the room.

Ten minutes later she stepped out of the principal`s office with her timetable, a map of the school and a bunch of useless papers she didn`t understand in her hand. She scanned her timetable. "So first thing Monday morning..." she muttered to herself "found it. English in room 102"

After ten minutes of staring at the map she still hadn`t figured out how to read it so she just crumpled it up and threw it into a nearby bin. Well all the rooms on her current floor were labelled G something and this was the ground floor, so the 1 something rooms were probably on first floor she deduced.

She sprinted down the corridor to the stairs and took them four at a time. She ran to class thanking her thinking skills and shinigami training all the way there. She arrived at her destination just a few seconds later. It didn`t really matter that she was late. She was new here after all so the teacher will probably go easy on her.

The moment she set foot in the classroom twenty-seven pairs of eyes, including the teacher`s turned towards her. "Well, Ms Ash I thought you would never make it" remarked the teacher then putting on a softer tone "I hope you`re not finding it hard to get around the school"

"No Ms. I just found the map hard to read. I thought it was for a higher level group of students so I threw it away." She said shrugging her shoulders. The whole class burst into fits of laughter and the teacher`s smile widened. At least she knew that that she was on this teachers good side.

"Well you better introduce yourself to the class" she said. Taking her advice Mai stood at the top of the class and introduced herself. "Go take a seat there next to Alex" she ordered pointing at an empty seat next to a blonde-haired kid, "And I`ll talk to the principal about making a map especially for second years" she joked before returning her attention to the lesson at hand.

Walking down to her seat she dropped her school bag under her desk then plopped herself down onto her chair. She took the chance while the teacher was focused answering a student's question and turned her attention to the boy, Alex, sitting next to her.

She was sure she hadn`t seen hair that blonde before and she had to admit he was pretty handsome. He was also fit and judging by the muscles on his arm and the way he moved he probably did some form of martial arts.

But there was still that nagging feeling that she had seen him before. But where? She shrugged the feeling of before gently nudging him with her shoulder. He turned towards her and she mouthed the words "What`s your name?"

"My name is Alex Rider…."


	2. School

DISCLAIMER:If I owned Bleach or Alex Rider I wouldn`t be on Fan fiction.

I also changed the storyline a bit, so yeah... Anyways this is set during Scorpia.

"...and this is the library" finished Alex waving his hands dramatically in front of the entrance."Where we hide when we want to skip class" added Tom as a matter-of-fact sticking his index finger up, like a teacher lecturing her students, to emphasis his point.

Mai was warming up to both Alex and Tom, his spiky black haired friend with the bright blue eyes and playful attitude. Alex had kindly offered to show her around the school during the school break .Being a friend of Alex (and generally just wanting to goof of in the corridors), Tom decided to tag along.

In the past half an hour as they walked through the Tour De L`ècole( as Tom reffered to it ) he had made it his job to add a comment or randonmaly crack a joke after everything Alex said. Thanks to him she now knew that the science departement was raided by a group of blood-thirsty terrorists who had tried to burn the whole school down but failed. (She didn`t really believe him though it did explain why the science section was currently being rebuilt.)

Not that she was complaining. She was actually enjoying his care-free personality reminded her of a certain ginger-haired, thrill-seeking Tom she`d known from around two hundred years ago. He had been the only friend she had at that time. She never had any siblings but she thought of him as a brother. He was always so loving and caring until t-t-the day that-

She was brought back to reality by a hand waving right infront of her face. "Yo! You still there?" quistioned Tom. After receiving no answer from the still recovering Mai he turned to Alex and elegantly placed his right hand on his hair" I think she`s paralysed by my amazing looks and just can`t get enough of them-"

"That`s not it at all! I was just...um...it`s just that you remind me of someone..." stuttered the embarrassed brunette. " I see." Muttered Tom rubbing his chin, pretending to think "Is he famous? Let me guess. He`s a famous actor who`s hot like me and has a six pack. No an eight pack. Right?" He chose that moment to start flexing his "muscles".

"Eight packs of what? Beer?" responded Alex smirking. Seeing the annoyed look on Tom he continued "He was probably a stinky caretaker who had the same hair as you"

"You starting on me bro!" asked Tom putting on a strange accent and throwing a few mock punches at his friend, all of which he effortlessly dodged.

Mai sighed. She promised herself she was going to forget her past and move on but here she was daydreaming about a friend from what? Two centuries ago? She put on a fake smile and let out a stiff laugh. "It`s no big deal" she reassured the two boys who were now aiming at each other ready to launch their books. Just then the bell rang with a loud ding-dong that echoed down the corridors.

She couldn`t help but laugh as both boys quickly shoved their heavy school books into their giant school bags while at the same time still managing to trade insults. What was even funnier was the look on their faces when the realization dawned. "We're late for class" they chorused, each grabbing an arm and literally dragging her to class.

Having Alex in all of her classes and Tom in nearly all of them was very helpful and gave her at least someone she could ask for help with on homework. Not that homework mattered or anything. She just didn`t want any of the teachers becoming suspicious and for her to resort to altering their memories.

She also wasn`t very good at reading English. It`s a Shinigami ability to learn to speak languages twenty times faster than humans, so speaking English, Spanish, French even Italian and a few other languages was a breeze for her. But that, unfortunately, was not the case with writing. She was stuck with old fashioned human "practice makes perfect" (not that she would ever let Mayori-taicho hear that phrase)

Just as they were entering class the intercom boomed into life"Will Mai Ash report to the principal`s office now, I repeat Mai Ash to the principal`s office" Great, what now? wondered the confused school girl. "Looks like somebodies in trouble" mused Tom earning himself an elbow from Alex, who proceeded to roll his eyes and mutter a "you'll be fine"

Mai could swear that Tom mentioned her surnname but that just had to wait. She was going to have to check out what surprise the principal had in store for her. Meandering and elbowing her way through the mob of students heading to class, she began to replay the day's events in her head.

First there had been the uneventful trip to the principal's office in the morning. Nothing unusual there, just a new student meeting the principal for the first time. She didn`t recall getting in any trouble with any teacher and, except for her first class, where she had an excuse, she wasn`t late to any of her morning classes.

She cautiously inspected her school uniform, straightening her tie, fixing her collar, pulling up her socks and making sure she was wearing her name tag. She didn't want to spend anymore time with the principal than she had to. She especially couldn`t stand a lecture about school uniforms right now, considering the fact that the principal already had an eye on her for having a skirt that was shorter than average.

She knocked three times on the smooth, red surface of the door, still not quite sure why that particular colour chosen, considering the fact that it was the only door that colour in the whole school(which was something. Brookland Secondary school was big and had plenty of doors,big and small) She remembered at the last second to wait for the faint "come in" reply before entering, she couldn't help but shudder at the thought of spending her afternoon being spoon fed the Ten Commandments of politeness.

She was, for the second time day, met with the sight of the extraordinary principal's office, but it was unlike any other office she'd been in before. Now that was a statement judging the fact that she was a luitenant, she had seen all kinds of workstations, captain's offices and many more. This one though had really caught her of gaurd and fully woken her up that morning.

The plain, old, ordinary oak desk was set in the centre of the room facing her. Behind it was the window. The sun shone through the transparent glass casting dancing shadows into the room in a nice, kind of relaxing way. It reminded her of her room in the fifth devision barracks. She had a habit of never closing her curtain, even in the night time. Shiro-chan once remarked that there was no reason for her to have curtains. Gin told her that when the lights were on at night time, if the curtains were not drawn everyone outside could see her changing. That pervert. That comment started her new habbit of changing in the bathroom.

The wall to the right of her was covered in drawings. Not just any oridinary drawings. They were full of life,master pieces featuring animals that she never knew existed. They probably didn't. This is what made them even more amazing, the fact that the artist probably made them up, meaning they had a wide imagination and they were pretty talented at drawing too.

The next thing that had caught her eye was the amount of objects on the desk. In the right corner lay a stack of fresh, ruled paper, right next to a stamp, probably used for stamping the date assumed Mai, or atleast that's what the other teachers used them for. The other corner was occupied by a neat pile of folders filled to the brim with documents. The front side of the desk was lined by souvenir models most of which Mai recognised; Leaning Tower Of Piza Italy, Eiffel Tower, France, Big Ben, London -which was a bit weird since they were currently in London- The Statue Of Liberty, New york and a few others which were unidentifiable to Mai.

The highlight of the room, in Mai`s opinion, was the tall, floor to ceiling, oak bookcase, overflowing with all sorts of books. From novels, to dictionaries, to maps and atlases. The top shelves contained novels ranging from curiuosity-inducing detective novels, Alex Cross and Sherlock Holmes to suspence-filled Fantasy, Harry Potter and Artemis Fowl. While books in all different languages occupied the fourth shelf and the bottom shelf held school textbooks and workbooks. Its said that room tells alot about its occupier, Mai didn`t know what to make of this room.

"You called for me, Ms?" Mai stated gently lowering herself onto one of the two plump, comfortable red chairs in front of the desk. "Yes, Ms Ash" replied the principal from where she was standing, gazing out the window. She was a tall woman, around fifty or sixty, it was really hard to tell, with a slendar figure and bristly faded blonde hair, short,down to her chin, that was on the verge of turning grey. Her clothes were very professional, a black suit, no jewellery except for a pair of stud earrings and she wore no make up to cover the wrinkles on her face, which were the only signs that showed her true age.

"Mr Grey wanted to inform you of something important" she continued before sitting down and waving for the teacher standing there-Mr Grey. He was pretty young, probably in his mid twenties and was dressed casually in jeans and a stripey white shirt with an open collar.

"As you know you're a new student and are still getting used your new surroundings." he contineud folding his hands while amazingly still managing to avoid creasing the paper. After receiving another confused nod from the gradually growing impatient girl he finished "I thought it would be a good idea to join the class next week on a trip to Venice"

Not knowing how to react, Mai instinctively put a surprised look on her face, when in reality she was plain irritated. She had fretted over nothing and now she was missing part of her favourite subject, science.

He must have received the reaction he had been anticipating since he added "It's a very good chance to get to know the class better, while on the other hand enjoying yourself and learning new interesting things." His tone radiated confidence, he probably already new her answer. There was nothing to lose from a class trip to on of the most fascinating cities in the world.

All of a sudden Mai found herself excited. This was her chance to take a break. She had come to the world of the living on a holiday and this was the perfect vacation, even if it was an educational trip. She couldn`t keep the curiousity out of her voice as she inquired "What exactly do we do there?"

"We look at museums, churches, palaces... that sort of thing. If you want to come you just have to fill in this form and get it signed" He answered handing her a sheet of paper, the form. Mai almost let out a laugh. She had escaped sitting in her office filling in forms all day long, but here was another form for her to fill in. And sign too. It seemed she was destined to a life of filling in blanks and signing her name.

"Okay, I`ll bring it back tomorrow" Mai affirmed taking the form in her hands. "Good, now you better be getting to class" commented the principal glancing at her watch. "Yes, Ms" answered Mai getting up.

Thanks for reading and please review.


	3. Venice

The two thieves had been unlucky. Wait, no that wasn't quite right. It was just bad timing. If they had committed their crime an hour earlier, they would have been enjoying yet another victory. It's a rule of nature to never steal with a lieutenant shinigami on the premises. But, of course, they didn't know that.

It was a warm, sunny afternoon, three days days into the trip, and Mai was standing in an Italien square. She was enjoying her time, no paperwork, no hollows, there wasn't even any cooking and cleaning to do, since they were staying in a hotel.

Standing beside her were two schoolboys who she had befriended in the past week, her only two friends, Alex and Tom. To her right was a handsome blonde with a slender, attractive face that would have had Rangiku going on for ages. Next to him stood, Tom with his carefree attitude and spiky black hair, that was in a way, cute.

Right now Tom had just offered to buy them ice-cream, and having refused Alex still had to order for them.

"Come on. You can order it for me. When I ask anyone for anything in Italien they just stare at me like I'm mad"

"Don't worry, I'll order it." Offered Mai chuckling " Don't need anyone to call the mental asylum or anything" Shaking her head she walked up to the shop with the two boys and in fluent Italian said " Can I have three granita's, please?"

"School trip?" smiled the shopkeeper as she prepared the ice-creams. "Yeah" replied Mai sifting through the coins Tom had handed her. "Have you visited any of the museums? Palazzo Grassi?" Mai nodded in reply, handing the shopkeeper the money, and grabbing her ice-cream. In fact they had visited it the day before.

She thanked the shopkeeper and exited the shop along with an awestruck Tom and a mystified Alex by her side. "You speak Italian!" stated Tom, jaw hanging open. She laughed, before placing her hand under his chin and gently clasping his mouth closed. "It's rude to stare" she responded, tapping him on the nose, but she winked at him to let him know she was joking. This set all three of them laughing.

Having recovered first, Alex inquired about her knowledge of languages, "So you speak Japanese, French, English and Italian. Any other languages you speak , we should know about. Spare Tom the surprise next time. You don't know his jaw could fall of, he's pretty fragile."

"Turkish, Arabic, Russian, German and Spanish" replied Mai ruffling the awestruck Tom's hair "Now don't get your pea in a twist, Princess" she continued before joining Alex in yet another fit of laughter. Tom finally got the joke and, blushing deeply, aimed a weak punch, which Mai caught in mid-air, still laughing. "That's not funny, guys"

Mai suddenly stopped laughing and grabbed both of his shoulders hard. Staring him in the eyes, she gave him a serious look, which usually scared the hell out of everyone. She could feel him weakening under her hold, and, maintaining eye contact, she whispered, in her most malevolent voice, "I'm a girl"

She let go and treated him to a mischievous grin. A playful smile appeared on Tom's lips as he shouted "You witch. You had me going there. I thought you were planning to murder me" For the third time that afternoon the trio found themselves clutching their painful stomachs, laughing.

When the laughter died down, Mai stood there shaking her head. "Seriously, y-

She was the first to spot it, a motorbike , a 200cc Vespa Granturismo to be more precise, had surged forward on the other side of he square. The two men riding it were dressed in jeans and loose-fitting, long-sleeved shirts. The passenger had on a visored helmet and the driver, sunglasses, obviously to hide their identity.

They steered towards Miss Bedfordshire, as if to run her over, but Mai knew better, and she was right. Just a split second before contact, the motorbike veered away and the passenger professionally snatched the unfortunate teachers handbag. Dammit, if only she could've used flash step. She would've been able to stop them.

There was nothing she could do as she watch them grab their loot and accelerate away. But she could something to stop them getting away. They were now cutting diagonally across the square, heading for where she, Alex and Tom were standing.

A plan started to form at the back of her mind. She couldn't block the way for the driver, not without using her shinigami powers or getting squashed like an insect. That left... She ran towards the fountain , ignoring Alex's "stay back" order and stopped short around a meter ahead of it. She turned around ... her whole plan evaporated when she spotted Alex sprinting purposfully towards one of the stalls, carrying a bucket. The contents of the stall were...

A grin of amusement creeped into her features and she shook her head at the absurdity of his plan. She watched as he scooped bird seed into the bucket and swung around hurling the seed at the Vespa, just as it was about to flash past him.

She had noticed the two hundred or so pigeons gathered in the square earlier, and mentally kicked herself for not coming up with the idea. This was great! She had been outsmarted by a kid barely a twentieth of her age! She watched with enjoyment as the supposedly harmless creatures swooped down, diving at the two men, from all directions.

There was a reason blind people don't drive, and it looked like the driver of te vespa was discovering this the hard way. The bike performed a one eighty turn, so now it was heading back towards...Alex! At the speed it was going, he wouldn't be able to avoid it. This was not good!

Mai cursed silently, as her hand flew automatically inside the pocket of her skirt, producing two extra-sharp darts. Soi-fon had given them to her as a parting gift, when she became fukataicho of squad five. She always carried them with her, they reminded her of the days she spent with Soi-fon taking care of her.

Holding the darts in front of her, she focused, putting her target in her mind

_Empty your mind of everything._

The bike was getting closer every millisecond.

_Put your target only in your mind and focus. Add a bit of reiatsu to your throw._

Doing it just like Soi-fon taught her, all those decades ago, she lobbed the darts with all the strength and accuracy she could muster, and watched as the darts pierced the tough lining of the front tyre, causing the bike to swerve again, sending it hurtling towards her, at the same speed as before.

As the bike edged closer, her first impulse was to jump out of the way, but she didn't want to flash everyone sight of her underwear. Instead she waited until the Vespa was nearly upon her before gracefully jumping into the air, and tapping lightly of the the drivers head, she landed elegantly, like a ballerina, just as the motorbike went toppling into the fountain.

She sighed with relief, just as the stall owners started applauding and laughing. Alex was heading towards her, disbelief etched into his face. He was carrying Miss Bedfordshire's bag. He stopped dead in his tracks and a look of horror appeared on his face.

All sound came to a sudden silence, and mystified Mai spun around to find that the driver of the Vespa had somehow untangled himself, and he stood now, pistol in his hand, pointing it straight at ...her! From just about a meter away from her, he had a clear shot. There was going to be no running away or any sort of move to get her out of this situation.

Her mouth dried up, her heart was pounding hard in her chest and in the heat of the moment, she forgot that she was already dead, a bullet wouldn't make much of a difference.

"Now, anybody move and this girl is dead meat" announced the would-be thief in slightly accented English, stepping out of the fountain, gun still aimed at her heart. Then some idiot decided it was the best time to scream. Everyone watched in dread, as the hand clasped around the trigger and pulled.

In those two dreadful seconds she realized two things. The man aiming a gun at her was a total and utter idiot. The gun he was holding was set to safety. She noticed this just a second before he did, but that was all the time she needed.

With surprising speed and force she kicked the gun out of his hand. It flew in the air and skid out of reach. The poor man stood no chance as Mai kicked him in the guts then threw a spinning hook kick, which caught him in the jaw. His head whipped back sharply and he tumbled, unconscious, back in the fountain.

This time the whole square exploded in cheers, even the pigeons seemed relieved. A crowd formed around her, ignoring the two seriously late officers that were arresting, the two men in the fountain.

Mai sheepishly rubbed the back of her head, she wasn't used to so much attention. Out of the corner of her eye, she spied Alex handing the bag back to the teacher , before muttering a few words. Then she couldn't see him anymore, because of the crowd, gathered around her, that somehow decided it was a okay to start interrogating her.

Suddenly, Alex burst through the crowd and did the last thing she expected him to. He wrapped his arms around her, pulling her into a tight hug and muttered in her ear, "I'm glad you're alright", followed by a sigh of relief.

She returned the friendly gesture, before bursting into a fit of giggles of relief. "Me too" she replied. They broke apart as the teachers came towards them to ensure thier safety. Tom appeared out of nowhere, and asked" Do i get a hug too?"

This set the whole crowd laughing. Mai muttered a quick "Of course", and, laughing and shaking her head, gave him a quick hug.

A few minutes later, everyone having got over the initial shock, the crowd dispersed, still chatting about the incident. Thanks to her amazing stunt, Mai was approached by pretty much everybody in the class. Girls trying to befriend her and boys attempting to gain her attention.

After not having gained much success, they finally left her alone and she was able to go back to talking to her friends. "That was amazing" cried Tom for the hundreth and something time that day causing Mai's blush to grow two shades darker.

"You didn't tell me you did martial arts" commented Alex, changing the subject, having noticed Mai's discomfort. She jumped at the change of subject, glad to have something else to talk about.

"Well, I've done Teakwando, Kung fu and I was training in Karate before I moved from Japan" she answered, careful not to sound suspicious. It was true that she had trained in all three martial arts when she was under Soi-fons hand, decades ago. She still practiced in her spare time and sometimes sparred with Soi-fon, even though she was nowhere as good.

"So you don't train anymore?" "Well..." She racked her brain trying to think of an excuse, "I couldn't find a club, where I moved to" Getting bored of listening to his friends talking, Tom decided to join the conversation. "Alex does Karate, and since you go to the same school, you probably live close together too, right? So why don't join Karate with Alex?"

The two of them turned to look at him, clearly taken aback by his sudden burst of intelligence. "Looks like you've got some brains behind that thick skull of yours" commented Alex, flashing him a smile to show he was joking. " That's a great suggestion, Tom" said Mai, making him beam. It would be a great idea to hone her skills, while getting to spend more time with her new friend.

"Just make sure you don't get too close, I might accidentally kick you in the face or something" warned Mai, giggling to herself at the image of Alex in a karate suit, covered with blood. "Yeah, like that would ever happen" He huffed back, then catching the look on Mai's face he started laughing. Not getting the joke, but still not wanting to be left out, Tom joined his friends in yet another surge of uncontrollable laughter.

* * *

Mai finished washing her hands, following her third trip to the bathroom in the last was certainly something she had eaten but, between breakfast, lunch and the ice-creams from earlier , she was finding it hard to tell what. There probably was something wrong with her gigai, since it was very unusual for a gigai to react this way to human food, although she suspected that this was just her foul luck.

Bending down closer to the sink, she splashed her face with refreshing, cold water. The heat outside certainly hadn't done her growing fever any favors. She rinsed her mouth out, getting rid of the taste of vomit.

Looking into the mirror, Mai found herself thinking back the day's events. Something was wrong somewhere, but what? And the feeling of being watched, kept following her. First at the museum the day before, then that morning right before the bike incident.

She found herself replaying her conversation with the shopkeeper

_"School trip?"_ How had he known that they were on a school trip, since they weren't wearing their school uniform?

_"Have you visited any of the museums? Palazzo Grassi?"_ How had he known what museum they had visited? Venice is a country of cathedrals and museums, out of all of them, why had he mentioned that one specifically. Thinking about it now, it sounded a bit as if he was teasing her, that he knew something she didn't.

Then there was the gun the theif had been holding. She had noticed a tiny image of a scorpion etched on the side, a detail which she had dismissed as irrelevent, up until now. She was certain that she had caught sight of an exact of replica of it on a bracelet the shopkeeper was wearing and ...where else?...a..boat...Right outside! Just about a few minutes earlier!

She whipped out her phone and launched google chrome. Tapping her foot impatiently she typed in _Scorpion, Venice..._


End file.
